Antigone Analysis

What is worth mentioning in Sophocles’ play is that he not only showed the weak side of women but also the strong ones. For example, Ismene is the traditional role of women in ancient Greek—coward, fear of men power and feeble. For Ismene, "we must remember we were born women, not meant to strive with men" (Antigone). She even chose to die with Antigone while hearing her sentence, for she was afraid that she would be alone, she could not be able to fight against Creon, this men-dominant society. In contrast, her sister Antigone presents the “women power”.

After his accusations, Oedipus mocked Teiresias for his blindness, and told him to leave the palace as Oedipus had grown tired of him. Oedipus’s imperfect nature stopped him from learning the truth from Teiresias before it was too late, and lead to great loss at the end of the play. Throughout the story of Oedipus the King, the imperfectly noble nature of Oedipus is displayed for all to learn from. His temperamental and overzealous nature made him argumentative and combative when Teiresias tried to tell him the truth about the murder, causing Oedipus to accuse his good friend Creon of being a usurper.

“ Mistakes made by a foolish mind, cruel mistakes that bring on death.” (1406 to 1407.) In this quote, King Creon of Thebes is acknowledging that he has made tragic mistakes, because he wanted to the laws of his state, that he put in place, instead of preserving the safety of his family, which consequently lead to suffering for many. In the play Antigone, by Sophocles, the character Creon makes decisions based on what he feels is right, and refuses to pay attention to other’s advice. His stubbornness and selfishness prove fatal, and as a consequence of his moral deficiency, he kills an innocent woman, and loses his son in the aftermath.

This role of her being an antagonistic protagonist creates a paradox within the already complex and unusual child. The symbol of Pearl plays an important part in the novel The Scarlet Letter. She is a reminder of her mother 's sin and antagonist toward Hester, as well. She is the root of many other symbols in the book.

In Atonement, the author Ian McEwan uses contrasting language to demonstrate the paradox

They have no qualms about driving him away from the community 's holy places, so that he cannot spoil them. Symbolically, justice is represented as a certain character in Oedipus Rex. At the beginning of his quest for the truth, Oedipus first consults a blind oracle, Tiresias, who warns him that his search will only end in tragedy. Tiresias reflects a wise Oedipus of the future.

The play starts off by showing Medea suffering and crying upon her husband's betrayal and it presents an ordinary woman of the time. 'Oh I am wretched pity me for my sufferings! Oh, if only I could die'. Her anguish and anger was relatable by the audience because her sorrow and grief symbolises an average woman of her time who would have reacted in a similar way after a loss of her husband. However she transforms herself into an evil master mind and labels her husband and his new wife as her enemy.

Similarly, Petruchio begins to act deranged when he arrived to his wedding, only harming his reputation and family name, not his bride. In this allusion, Hera seems to be a representation of Katherine, while his murdered wife is a symbol for Petruchio’s ruined reputation after making a fool of himself to improve Katherine’s

In contrast to this, in Antigone, Creon is a tyrant-like leader who lacked empathy and care for others. This can be seen as he forbid the burial of Polynices, which defied Greek custom. This act results in the death of Antigone, his son Haemon and his wife Eurydice (“Play Summary Antigone”). Contrary to Oedipus, Creon’s Hubris lead to a series of conscious actions that negatively affect the characters in the story. In the end, Creon can be seen to have learnt his lesson as the chorus states: “Of happiness the crown

Towards the beginning of the story when Creon wants to punish her for burying her brother, Antigone begs him to kill her, as “[His] talking is a great weariness.” (2.95) Not only is she trying to show disrespect by rushing the king, but is doing so arrogantly, putting herself above him for that brief moment. Although she starts off in the play as this naive and arrogant character, towards the end she develops a sort of humility and knowledge that she is doomed in a fate out of her control. She realizes fate is “Operative for ever, beyond man utterly. [Antigone] knew [she] must die...”

Her actions, which go against King Kreon’s decree, speak volumes to what is most important to her- respecting her family. This rebellion is easy to sympathize with because she goes about rejecting an unjust order in a peaceful and respectable way. Antigone is a young, yet experienced character in the play. She is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, who share one of the cruelest and most twisted stories in Greek mythology. On top of that, her brothers Eteokles and Polyneices killed each other in battle, over a land dispute.

Haemon’s pride leads him to reject his father’s authority and destroys himself out of anger and grief Haemon is so upset that he stabbed himself because he seen that Antigone was dead. People of power such as kings are often forced to chose between family and law. In the book by Sophocles, King Creon has to make such a decision. He issues the edict to outlaw the burial of his traitor nephew, Polyneices. In reaction, his niece Antigone disobeys the law and buries her brother out of loyalty to her family.

Antigone and Penelope are both known as significant women during the ancient Greek time period. Antigone is considered to be a strong-willed woman who is deemed a noble heroine in the book titled Antigone, one of The Three Theban Plays written by Sophocles. Similarly, Penelope, in the Odyssey written by Homer, is considered to be a strong, independent woman who is a loyal mother and wife. Penelope sets an ideal womanly example during ancient Greek time period. While both of these women are known for they individual strengths and fearlessness, they are both motivated to proceed in different manners.

Dylan Madden Word Count: 508 Sophocles’ Antigone Response 6 September 2017 Before her story, Antigone’s brother Polynices, who led the armies of Argos to an unsuccessful attack which killed him and her other brother Eteocles, was considered a traitor by the new king of Thebes, Creon. Because of his actions, Creon didn’t want to bury his body however, Polynices sister Antigone saw his unburied corpse to be an offense not only to the gods but the fact that her brother to not be buried led her into doing what was right to her by burying her brother herself. Unlike Antigone, her sister Ismene was a woman who tried to be safe, to talk Antigone out of her plan.

This extraordinary woman who stood strong in what she believes refused to surrender her seat to a white male passenger, once said: “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right” (Rosa Parks, 1955). The story of Antigone describes a strong woman who stood up against the cruel dictator and doing what she thought that was right, showing an example of how women can stand up against authoritarian men. Antigone rejects the Ancient Greek view of a female character which is that a woman cannot defend herself and shows the reader an example of a strong woman by refusing to be under the influence of men’s power and defending her beliefs. Antigone rejects being controlled by Creon and speaks up to defend herself.